LUNCH AT POULET

For some time I've wanted to visit Poulet, a little deli in Berkeley that serves, what else? - chicken. So on a Monday, Tom and I headed over there to grab a quick lunch. Apparently we showed up right before the lunch rush arrived, because there weren't any people waiting when we arrived, and there was a line as soon as we had placed our orders.

The place is kinda tiny, but very cute and decorate in sort of a rustic French way. The front is dominated by a really big case, where they keep a bunch of cold salads and various other side dishes. You can tell this must be a popular place to get some quick take out for lunch or dinner. Tom and I perused the menu for a little bit, before finally settling on what we wanted to order.

I ended up getting a chicken plate. I had a choice of three different flavors of chicken, and ended up going with teriyaki and a side of coleslaw. The food was well cooked and flavored, but I thought the portion was kinda skimpy for the amount of money. But maybe that's not such a bad thing. I really should stop eating so much food and start cutting back on my portion sizes- you know, more of that European thing - really good food, but in smaller quanities.

Meanwhile, Tom got a panini which ended up being kinda boring. The panini wasn't grilled long enough for the cheese to actually melt, and all it was was chicken and cheese on bread - there weren't any additional veggies or additions.

In retrospect, we may not have had the most wonderful food at Poulet, but it certainly was decent enough. And to be honest, if it were open right now, I'd probably run over then to pick up a quick, simple, realtively healthy lunch. It really does have it's place, and though we may not be visiting it often, I'm sure we'll go back at some point.

DINING AT THE FERRY BUILDINGg

A couple weeks ago we visited the Ferry Building so I could order my Thanksgiving meats at the Golden Gate Meat Company (I ordered 4 duck breasts and one turkey breast from Diestel farms). Since we were already there, and kinda hungry, we decided to grab a quick lunch. Unfortunately it was Sunday, meaning the tourists were out in full force, and the line at Hog Island Oysters was just too long, so we decided to check out a place we hadn't eaten at before - Delica rf-1.

For the longest time I had thought Delica was an Italian deli, but turns out it is really a sleek Japanese Deli, specializing in serving bento boxes to go. They had a lot of things to choose from - cold bento boxes or warm bento boxes that you could choose to assemble yourself. I decided to go with one of the cold bento boxes with 9 different selections - mostly mini salads, a couple pieces of sushi and a chicken meat ball.

I thought the bento box was Ok. Certainly healthy, but I really do enjoy hot food, and I don't think there was enough food for the high price tag (around $11). I definitely like the bento boxes that we can get in Japantown more.

Meanwhile, Tom got one of the pick your own bento boxes with 3 dishes. You can see there are chicken meatballs towards the top, a sort of eggplant dish on the right, white rice at the bottom and seaweed salad on the left.

Tom also thought his bento box was ok. It might not have been his favorite thing in the world, but the place is conveneient and allows you to get a quick bite at the Ferry Building. The organization of the place is a little strange and it's hard to figure out where to pay or how to order, but once you get it down, it's not too bad (and he's already been back there once since our first visit.)

DINNER ON HALLOWEEN

On Halloween night we had dinner with Huong in Rockridge. It was only our second trip to Rockridge, but luckily, she had picked a restaurant a little bit farther from the main drag, so we were able to find parking pretty quickly. Tom picked me up after work and we went directly to the restaurant, Soi 4 Hong Kong Eatery, and I was starving when we arrived. Even though we were a little late for our reservation, the restaurant wasn't packed, and we were seated right away. The restaurant is a sort of fancy Thai place - with big windows that looked out onto the street, a lot of metal and a big bar. It was kinda fun looking out onto the street, with costumed people walking by.

Since Huong and her friend were running late, I insisted upon order a few appetizers right away, so I could get some food in my tummy. We ended up getting an order of fish cakes and and crispy veggie rolls.

Both were good, and they really hit the spot. But I certainly don't think they were worth the $6-$7 /plate that they charged.

When Huong and her friend arrived, we ordered a bunch of dishes to share. Below you can see a duck curry and a crispy sliced chicken & string beans wok-tossed with sweet kaffir pik-khing chili.

The dishes were all quite good. And I really did enjoy the crispy chicken, but Tom and I agree that we could have easily had a meal just as good at half the price if we had visited Sabuy Sabuy (just as long as the owner's there). As with certain types of food, I just don't feel that I need fancy Thai food, I would much rather be eating at a little restaurant or hole in the wall, where I'll have food that's just as good, and the price will be much lower. Also, I don't think the service was that great at Soi 4. They really seemed to want to turn our table (even though there wasn't anyone waiting to be seated) and served our dishes way too quickly. It was fun to hang out and eat with Huong, but I think next time, we'll pick the restaurant.